U.S. Ambassador To Israel: 'We've Gotten Strong Support From Around The World For Israel's Right To Defend Itself'
By Dom Giordano
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Dom Giordano spoke with the United States Ambassador to Israel, Ron Dermer, about the FAA's decision to cancel flights to Tel Aviv airport for two days amidst the fighting between the Israeli Defense Force and Hamas in Gaza.
Despite accusations from politicians, Dermer does not believe the FAA acted with anything but the best intentions.
"I don't think there was any politics behind the decision making. I just think tensions are high because of what happened in Ukraine. The fact that a rocket landed within a mile away from the external perimeter of the airport, that this had set off some sort of red lights and I understand it was an internal procedural decision that automatically did it for 24 hours. I'm glad that the FAA has lifted that and American aircraft will continue to fly."
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He stated that leaders from around the globe understand the challenges Israel is facing, within the broader conflict with Hamas.
"We've gotten strong support for Israel's right to defend itself, not just from the United States, we've gotten it from around the world, the Germans, the British, the French, the Canadians, the Australians, because everybody understands what they would do if you have two thirds of their populations in bomb shelters."
Dermer was highly critical of Hamas for using military tactics that intentionally put civilians at risk.
"I think what is also starting to penetrate, it's been slow, but is actually starting to penetrate, is how outrageous it is, Hamas' systematic use of human shields. This is something that I'm not so sure we've seen at this level, systematically, to place missile batteries and military command centers next to schools, in hospitals and in mosques. We had two UN schools in Gaza that had rockets in them. In fact, we had rockets fired at us just now from one of the schools and we were fired upon by anti-tank rockets from inside a hospital. This is really grotesque stuff."